SA undersea broadband cables are in a tangle

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Chris Barron goes in search of meaningful answers in SA’s puzzling communications sector.

Director general, communications

HALF an hour with Lyndall Shope- Mafole and you’d never guess she was the director general of a government department routinely roasted for an incompetence that is sometimes quite cringe-worthy.

http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/Business/Article.aspx?id=565001

 

[bwana]

“You’ll have to ask the Department of Public Enterprises that. I don’t want to say things that I don’t know for sure.”

Then you should forever more be silent.

 

[NameOfBeast]

“It is actually doing very well,” she said, sounding offended. “We can be very proud of our achievements.”

You could be, but only if you are competing in the Special Olympics, in the microcephalic division.

“And here we have difficulties. Because, you know, the globe is basically based on a capitalist system. Those who have more money are able to make more money.”

She embarked on a rambling and not-to- be-interrupted economics lecture, but, to cut a very long story short, her objections boiled down to South African companies doing better out of Eassy cable than other African companies.

And the clincher:

Current reading: Busy with a third reading of ‘Fit to Govern’ by Ronald Suresh Roberts

I could not make stuff like this up. A loyal member of the Collective! Who will *never* be fired. Well, there is small chance that her head (or liver) might actually explode --- most people who read Ronnie's book did so only with the aid of a lot of alcohol.

 

[antowan]

Current reading: Busy with a third reading of ‘Fit to Govern’ by Ronald Suresh Roberts

WTF!!??!! Did she miss something the first 2 times? She is 100% a political beast and 0% technical.

This kind of **** makes me sick! To the bones and I bet this is the reason many folks are jumping ship and leaving this country. With this kind of absurd mentality we are on a road to nowhere sane.

 

[rpm]

This is a refreshingly honest interview: well done to Chris Barron for saying it like it is!

 

[NameOfBeast]

WTF!!??!! Did she miss something the first 2 times? She is 100% a political beast and 0% technical.

She is probably better qualified than most of her fellow appointees:

Master of Science, Jose Antonio Echeverria Higher Institute of Technology, Cuba; Telecoms Engineering

Antowan: I wonder what broadband is like in Cuba? At least we know where the pop Marxist economics comes from.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Does Cuba even have broadband?

 

[ToxicBunny]

Ok, just read the article and now I'm a bit dumbfounded.

She is the DG of Communications in South Africa. If SA companies are going to profit (in a legal and fair manor) from the submarine cables, wtf do we care if Ethiopia Telecom can't to the same degree, they are NOT our problem.

FFS, this guavamint gets more and more ridiculous every day.

 

[NameOfBeast]

She is the DG of Communications in South Africa. If SA companies are going to profit (in a legal and fair manor) from the submarine cables, wtf do we care if Ethiopia Telecom can't to the same degree, they are NOT our problem.

Silly billy! It's not going to make sense if you continue to think like a nasty capitalist. If we send you off to Cuba for a conversion course (think Clockwork Orange) at the Jose Antonio Echeverria Higher Institute of Technology it will all be clear.

 

[kifoth]

She is probably better qualified than most of her fellow appointees...

Which is scary, because she can't count! She thinks it's possible for all investors in a submarine cable to have 51%, and then we have this quote:

That’s because Africa is served by only one very thin submarine cable. The other countries have got millions and millions.

Millions and millions?

 

[kifoth]

This government’s track record in telecommunications? Let me refer you to the report of the World Economic Forum. Go and read it, they’ll tell you about this government’s track record

Just Googled the WEF and SA...

There's an article mentioning that report here : http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Telecoms/804.html It doesn't look like they were praising the government's track record at all, just the current policies (basically the ECA, which everyone likes.).

The WEF's data on the government's ICT track record is scathing...

Another measure of the success of the country's ICT policies must be the recently released World Economic Forum Global IT Report, which shows SA's ranking dropped three positions during the last year to 37th place. Five years ago this country was at 11th place.

That was last year. To be fair, we've climbed a few places this year, but if I were Lyndall, I wouldn't crow about our "track record" with the WEF.

 

[feo]

So why are we paying so much more for telecommunications than our competitors?

“That’s because Africa is served by only one very thin submarine cable. The other countries have got millions and millions.

“That is why we are investing in submarine cables,” she said triumphantly. “Because international connectivity is critical.”

OMW, is this for real? Lyndall Shope-Mafole is a fool of the highest calibur. Does she even know what the internet is.

 

[kilo39]

Personal philosophy: I’ve never thought about that.

Marxism is alive and well and living in the DoC (while the rest of us in the real world pay their bills.)

I suggest what we REALLY need is a cable or three to reality (maybe millions and millions?)

 

[icyrus]

Do we have even a single competent person in our government?

I'm not even asking for good or anything more, just competent. From what I have seen - no. Not even close.

 

[ic]

When will the guavamental ramblings from the Communications Hippocampus ever end .

 

[feo]

Millions and millions. LOL!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_submarine_communications_cables

 

[Alchemist]

Do we have even a single competent person in our government?

I'm not even asking for good or anything more, just competent. From what I have seen - no. Not even close.

I think the janitors at the Union Buildings can do a better job than moron running it.

 

[Gatecrasher]

"We will have a solution when I say we have a solution and when I am credited with the solution. If your solutions are not my solutions then they are not solutions."

Meglamania 101.

 

[ic]

I hereby rename the Department of Communications, from now on the DoC will be known as the Department of Communistications with Stalin-Mafole as its Director General.

 

[Vrotappel]

Where the hell did Mbeki got all these idiots from, and all at the same time? This truly defies the law of averages.